


Stalker

by Mondhase



Category: Power (TV)
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 09:27:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20776295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mondhase/pseuds/Mondhase
Summary: One-shot, set right after episode 1x05 “I Gotta Go”. Greg confronts Angela at the office after their falling out, convinced he finally knows what’s really going on with her. / Rated M for language.





	Stalker

**Author's Note:**

> I only just started watching Power, so I know that this fanfic is horribly out-dated by now. At the moment of writing/posting this, I haven’t watched further than episode 5 yet, so I have no idea how things between Greg and Angela actually turned out in the end. Or when he found out the truth about her cheating. So this is just my take on a moment of honesty long overdue imo.

He had been stalking her again.

All day.

Yet only with his eyes this time.

Every time Assistant United States Attorney Angela Valdez had moved through the offices housing their joined task force, FBI Special Agent Greg Knox had watched her every movement, his gaze following her wherever she went, yet without her so much as realising.

_“I’m a fucking FBI agent, Angela.”_

Yeah, good thing his time in Quantico had paid off, Greg thought wryly as he stared into the open file in his hand, pretending to be immersed in his work. Amazing how all that time spent learning to catch criminals had left him with the perfect skill set needed to spy on his ex-girlfriend.

His _ex_-girlfriend...

Greg closed his eyes and let out a deep breath, his thoughts racing back to that moment in Angela’s apartment three days ago when he had dramatically returned her key and stormed out.

_“Here’s your space!” _

Back then, he had not been entirely sure that things were really over between them. Sure, he had needed a break from Angela’s bullshit, but at the end of the day, he had still cared for her deeply. After all, all those months between them were not brushed aside so easily. Even now, even after today, there was a part of him that was still in love with her. A part that foolishly believed there could be some other explanation for her evasive behaviour and dishonesty than the one that was so plainly obvious. The one he had seen written all over her face today.

He was done listening to that part, though. In fact, he was done with a lot of things, like for example, losing his focus on the job, as he knew he had been doing lately. The fact that he had been staring at the same piece of paper for ten minutes, yet had no clue what it actually said, was more than enough proof of that.

Greg sighed exasperatedly as he closed the folder in his hands, knowing that there was only one way to clear his head. He had to face her. He had to end this. For good this time.

–

Greg’s knuckles barely brushed over the smooth surface of the door to Angela’s office before he reached for the handle, not bothering to wait for any reply. Instead he walked right in and closed the door behind him, an air of urgency propelling his steps.

“Angela, I need to talk to you.”

The assistant attorney’s eyebrows rose in response as she looked up from the papers covering her desk.

“Hi, Greg. Nice of you to knock.”

His eyes narrowed at the blatant sarcasm, yet he chose not to dignify it with an actual response. Instead he remained focused on Angela. Watched her lean back in her comfortable chair and fold her arms, while she in turn was scrutinising him.

“I’m gonna assume this is about the case, right?” she finally prompted, her gaze practically begging him not to turn this into a personal matter. 

Greg knew he would have to disappoint her, and yet, considering the imbalance of the scales between them, he really could not care less. In fact, he figured he could disappoint Angela a hundred times over and they would still not even be close to being even.

“No, it’s not.”

The dark haired woman sighed heavily as she rose from her chair, briefly turning away from Greg in the process. Yet he still caught her rolling her eyes at his response.

“So whatever happened to you giving me space, huh? Plus, we agreed, no private talk at the office,” Angela pointed out as she leaned against the massive cabinet standing behind her desk. Her arms were folded in front of her chest yet again and Greg could feel the irritation radiating off of her.

“Yeah, well, fuck that rule,” he shot back, not in the mood to follow Angela’s whims any longer. Plus, he was doing her a favour, really. They only needed to get this over with and then there would be no private matters left between them to ever talk about in the office again. He even told her as much.

“Come on, Angela, it’ll just take three minutes and then you can have all the space you ever wanted,” he pointed out, briefly spreading his arms to underline his point.

Angela sighed yet again, then walked over to the window leading out into the hallway. She peaked through the closed curtain before turning back towards Greg, annoyance darkening her features.

“Alright, fine, what do you want?”

“I want you to admit that you’re seeing someone else,” he replied matter-of-factly, causing Angela’s eyebrows to shoot upwards.

“What?”

“No, actually,” the agent corrected himself, a humourless chuckle escaping his lips as he dropped into one of the chairs in front of Angela’s desk, “I want you to admit that you’re _fucking_ someone else.”

“What the fuck, Greg?” The attorney’s voice was filled with barely concealed anger, but it had no effect on him. Not anymore.

“Yeah, exactly,” Greg replied, and he could see that the mocking tone of his voice only served to rile Angela up even further.

_Good. _

“You see, I’ve been watching you today, Angela.”

The dark haired woman had retreated back behind her desk by now and snorted dismissively as she, too, sat down, facing Greg head-on.

“And there’s the stalker again. _Charming_.”

The snide tone of her voice was hard to miss, but once again, the agent chose to ignore it.

“Oh, I knew that you were going to say something like that,” Greg admitted with a small nod, “but I don’t care. Because I know you, Angela. I know when there’s something going on with you you don’t want to tell anyone.” He leaned forward in his chair at this point, his eyes locked with those of the beautiful woman in front of him. The woman that used to be his...

“And I have to admit, you’re hiding it pretty well, at least here at work. Whenever you’re talking to someone, you make sure no-one notices. But I guess when you’re working around people like Saxe and Medina on a case that keeps getting messier and messier, it’s easy to pretend you’re actually annoyed or something like that.”

“I make sure no-one notices what? Greg, you’re not making any sense.” Angela threw her hands up in response and shook her head and the agent had to admit that her confusion seemed almost genuine. As if her entire demeanour in the office today – or the last few days, maybe even weeks – had not all been an act.

“That you’re happy.”

He could tell she had not expected this as an answer.

“Wha—”

“You’re happy, Angela, plain and simple. It’s like you’re glowing, really,” he began to explain, gesturing at her entire body as he leaned back in his chair. “It’s in your posture, your voice. It’s in the look on your face, whenever you think no-one’s watching. Well, I _have_ been watching, and I know that look. Fuck, I’ve been the _reason_ for that look. Not anymore, though, I know that much.”

Greg heaved a heavy sigh at this point and momentarily averted his eyes from Angela’s as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The attorney’s mouth opened for a moment as if she wanted to say something in return, yet in the end she remained silent. Greg couldn’t blame her. What was there left to say for her, really?

As he continued, the agent had to muster up all of his self-control to not betray how furious he actually was deep down. After all, he had come here for closure, not to make a scene, no matter how much he felt like it right now.

“So that means there’s someone else. Someone who’s obviously been treating you to more than just waffles and pancakes, if he’s putting _that_ look on your face.”

This time it was Angela who averted her eyes, choosing to look out the window instead. With this, giving Greg all the confirmation he needed, had there ever been any doubt in his mind about his theory. Still, he wanted – he needed – to hear her say it and so he went on.

“I mean, sure, it’s been three days since I gave you your key back. So for all I know, you could have run into your new hook-up the next day getting coffee, but somehow I have a really hard time believing that. So how long has it been going on, huh? How long have you been cheating on me?”

Angela’s gaze snapped back to him in an instant and there was more confidence in her words than he would have expected.

“Greg, I haven’t—”

“_Don’t!_” he pressed out, his voice sharp as he fixated Angela with an unyielding glare. “Don’t lie to me, Angela. I am so fucking over getting lied to by you.” He exhaled deeply and shook his head, grimacing in frustration. “Why even? I don’t get it. You’re a free woman. We’re not married or have kids; you could have left me anytime you wanted, so why go around fucking someone else behind my back? Or was that all part of the thrill?”

“_No!_” Angela objected in an instant, her face flushed as she leaned towards Greg. “No, it was never like that. I never…” she trailed off at this point, giving the man in front of her the opportunity to continue.

“What, you never ‘_did the deed_’ with some other guy while we were still seeing each other? You never lied about what you’ve been up to when we were telling each other about our day? And I bet you also never blew me off when I wanted to come over, so you could go ride someone else’s cock, right? I mean, sure, go ahead, look me in the eye and swear it. Maybe I’ll actually believe you.”

Silence fell over the room like a suffocating blanket as Greg stared Angela down, daring her to deny the truth even a second longer. To tell him some bullshit story, to blame work, or use any of the other excuses she had found so far to hide her transgressions.

This time, however, she did not. Instead, Angela had shrunk back into her seat and was now wiping a hand across her cheek to remove the single tear that was silently running down her face. She took a shaky breath and looked straight at the man sitting opposite from her, her voice nothing but a meek resemblance of her usual self.

“I’m sorry, Greg. I am. I know I screwed up and you’re right, the last thing you deserve is me lying to you about it.”

“So who is it, huh?” Greg wondered, not missing a beat, now that he had finally managed to get Angela to admit the truth. After all, who knew how long her honesty was going to last. “I don’t need a name, but I just can’t see you hooking up with some random guy from the grocery store. Is it someone I know?”

He knew it wasn’t Medina – and certainly not Saxe – but the mere idea that Angela was screwing someone inside the office, or anyone else they worked with, was making his throat clench.

“No,” she replied adamantly, appeasing at least some of his worries. “No, actually, it’s someone _I_ know. Or ‘knew’, really. Someone with whom I go way… _way_ back. I hadn’t seen him in almost twenty years and then we ran into each other again by chance a while back. At first we just met to catch up, but eventually… things happened. And then I made a choice.” Angela’s tone of voice was completely calm by now, and Greg could only assume that finally owning up to her mistakes was actually a relief for her as well. Not that it fucking mattered.

“A choice you didn’t bother telling me about,” he pointed out, taking a strange kind of satisfaction from the fact that Angela actually looked uncomfortable again for a brief moment.

“No.”

Another sigh escaped Greg’s lips as he realised they were done here. He had gotten his confession and even an apology – whatever that was worth – and he knew there was no sense in wasting any more breath on a relationship that was broken beyond repair.

“Alright…” he began, only to stop again immediately. “Well, no, not ‘_alright’_, actually. Fuck ‘_alright’_! But I guess it is what it is,” he concluded with a heavy shrug. “You and I are done – _obviously –_ but since we’re still on this lovely task force together, we’re gonna behave like grownups about all of this and keep working together professionally. Afterwards… who knows. But for now I just want to nail that motherfucker Lobos and I think we’re having a pretty good chance of actually getting there.”

“Agreed. We’ve always… been a good team,” Angela replied, her voice gentle and a faint smile tugging at her lips.

“Well, I don’t quite know about that right now, but don’t worry, I’ve got your back. Here at work, that is.” Greg knew perfectly well that Angela had to be aware of what he meant, and yet it still felt important to him to make the distinction. Although, if he was being honest, maybe it was just as much for his own sake as for hers.

“I know. Thank you.”

There was genuine gratitude shining in Angela’s eyes as she looked back at him, but for what might have been the first time ever, it left Greg entirely cold. Of course his feelings for the dark haired woman would not go away over night, but he did not want anything from her anymore. Not her love, not her affection, not even her gratitude.

“Yeah,” he merely replied, his eyebrows quirking upwards as he was ready to end this conversation.

A second later, Greg got up from his chair and headed towards the door, his heart feeling both heavier and lighter than before. He reached for the handle, but just as he was about to push the cold metal down, he hesitated. There was something else that had just popped into his mind. Something he had to say, because he knew he would never forgive himself for not saying it, should things ever start to go south on this job.

“Angela, Felipe Lobos is dangerous, we both know that. After all, Frankie warned us for a reason. And yet you’ve been putting yourself out there, chasing leads,” the agent pointed out as he turned back towards his ex.

“Now I’m not gonna lie; this shit between us, it pisses me off. It’s gonna piss me off for a _very_ long time, but if you _ever_ think you’re not safe – if there’s someone threatening or following you, lurking around your apartment or the office – you call me, got it? Don’t hesitate! I don’t want anything happening to you just because we had a bad breakup.”

Angela stared back at him in silence for a moment, visibly stunned by his words. In the end, the faint smile from before widened as the attorney nodded slowly.

“Got it. Again, _thank you, Greg_! ”

This time the agent only nodded in response before he finally opened the door and headed out into the corridor. Once outside, he closed the door behind him, shut his eyes and let out a heavy groan as both anger and relief washed over him. It was over. It was done. Now he just had to find a way to live with it.

Greg stood like this for a few moments, unaware of Agent Medina, who had just rounded the corner and was heading down the corridor.

“Why the long face, Agent Knox? Trouble in paradise?”

Greg’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the other man’s gloating voice and he cursed himself for letting his guard down momentarily. Standing here like this, in front of Angela’s office no less... He was really doing a bang-up job of keeping his personal matters private; giving people ideas, especially now that his and Angela’s secret relationship was over.

The undercover agent’s scrutinising gaze was resting heavily on him, but then it suddenly really hit Greg. It _was_ over. There was nothing to hide anymore, so there was no reason any potential office rumours were going to bother him any longer.

A broad grin spread on Special Agent Greg Knox’s face as he walked past his fellow agent, a heavy load just having fallen off his mind.

“Fuck you, Medina.”

~ The End ~


End file.
